How do I keep myself from falling into depression after getting fired?

I don't want to put in much detail. But I got fired from a career I worked so hard to achieve due to a few mistakes that added up too much too soon. I only worked there for 2 months before it all went down. I'm struggling to accept this and I think I'm still in the denial phase. Opportunities for this type of job are super super competitive and hard to come by. These last few days I've been very lazy and unwilling to do anything. It's gonna be really tough to bounce back up from this one.

I've been depressed before and for me it's an endless cycle of personal unproductivity where nothing gets done. What can I do to keep myself from falling into deep depression?

Most Helpful Guy

I think the first thing you need to do is take a week or two to let it settle in. Let the dust settle. Clear your head so that you can look around and say "Okay, this happened. Now what?"

After that time, start looking for a new job. At the very least, do some volunteer work. I went to a career roundtable this morning and they said that volunteering helps your resume if you're unemployed because it shows that you're still active and still applying your skills and talents. Plus, from an HR standpoint, it eliminates "he was in jail" as a reason for unemployment. Yes, some HR folks will think of that apparently.

If your termination was your fault, take this as a chance to see what changes you need to make both personally and professionally. If it wasn't, then be a better employee at one of their competitors. Remind yourself that it wasn't your fault, that you're not a bad person, and you're not a complete failure; someone was on a witch hunt, didn't find or look for all the facts, or didn't want to hear your side of things.

For now though, again, take a week or two to let things settle down and then pick yourself up and move forward.